Avilien

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Brief moments flashed before Luke's eyes. Days past where he stayed up all night playing games and destroying monsters, or helping people recover from online bullying. Memories of the rare times he spent with his dad in town at the market or comic store. Luke could recall his dad's face when he saw new games, hardware, or slightly naughty comics. That cheesy smile he would give after exiting the shop with a naughty purchase. All of this flashed before Luke as he flew down from the slanted roof of his house headfirst.

His nose met with a sandstone slab as Luke smashed into the front path that led to his red door. He felt pain as his body flopped down, but not intense pain. The pain he felt was as if he'd stubbed a toe on the corner of a doorway—his little toe. One would call it intense, but after a few jumps around, that pain would dull. Luke picked himself up and held the top of his head and nose where the pain was most prominent, to stop blood from coming out of his nose. By all rights, he should have been inside the back of an ambulance and carted off to the nearest hospital.

Luke couldn't fathom out why the pain was dissipating so quickly or why there was no bleeding when he removed his hand from his nose. He expected a cut, a gash, swelling, and blood, but there wasn't so much as a graze. Nebs jumped down after Luke; he landed like a cat, on all four paws, and then took the time to look at Luke like he was an idiot before then cleaning his front paw.

Shaking his head in disbelief and believing himself to be dreaming, Luke closed his eyes, rubbed them, and then opened them to see Nebs sitting in front of him.

"I'm still here, you moron," said Nebs, before then yawning.

"I thought I saw you, Nebs. What are you doing here? I thought you were looking for that beta-class knight to be your master?" A subtle, cheery female voice made Luke spasm.

In the fall, Luke had forgotten about Anna, the girl that now stood just feet away from him at the edge of his yard with a hand on her waist.

"Well, I found someone. Turns out to be an incompetent idiot, but he's the person I was looking for, I think. Too late to go back now, seeing as we sealed the deal over a bag of potatoes." Nebs leapt onto Luke's shoulder and lowered his head in humiliation. He was that depressed his ears slinked and he let loose a faint dying gasp.

"And this is my master. Starting to wish your friends used me for XP now." Nebs started to whimper. All Luke wanted to know was how and why he survived such an awkward fall.

"Aren't you the poor kid from year eight at my school?" asked Anna. She glanced at Luke before pulling out her phone.

Luke didn't know how to respond to that statement."Poor kid" was a phrase and title used to label him at school. On a daily basis, he was dogged about his clothes and lack of GTs. Try as he might to unfurl his tongue and reply to the girl of his darkest dreams, Luke replied the best he could.

"Yep. Poor kid, that's me. Mr. Poor, poor as can be." Luke laughed and scratched the back of his head.

"Dude. That was as cringe as cringe could be," whispered Nebs into Luke's ear, making Luke sweat even more.